Eagles seal a win on senior night
Emily Duran
Box Score IRVINE, Calif. - For those who have experienced "Senior Night" as a season comes to a close, you know that anything can happen, and usually does. A team that has had a tough season gets an emotional lift and can steal a victory, or a team that has had success can struggle with the emotions that come with celebrating the careers of your friends and teammates. For the Concordia Eagles it was a little of both tonight but, fortunately, this team that has been forging its own destiny all season, stepped away from the brink of defeat and used the strength of its seniors to complete an improbable 5-set comeback win over Hawaii Pacific at the CU Arena.
The Sharks of Hawaii Pacific, fresh off a tough loss at Azusa Pacific, showed no signs of a hangover, matching Concordia point-for-point in the opening set. HPU would forge a 15-10 lead with kills coming from all six players, keeping Concordia guessing and unable to find a rhythm of its own. The Eagles would get no closer than the final margin, dropping the first set 25-21. It would be the first time since a 5-set loss to Cal Baptist on October 8th that the Eagles dropped the first set of a match.
HPU senior Pomai Recca (6 kills), and middle hitter Lea Felton (4 kills) provided the one-two punch in set two that almost put the Eagles into an 0-2 hole. A flurry of Shark attacks propelled the visitors to an eerily similar 14-8 lead before the Eagles put together two kills and back-to-back blocks to re-establish some momentum and close the gap to just two points. As they've done all season, key moments became big points and timely blocks from
Amber Rose,
Kyra Auten and
Cindy Tran combined with CU's own duo of
Hannah Andrews (4 kills) and
Rachel Flynn (7 kills), would provide the counter-punch CU needed to get the 26-24 win and even the match.
Then, similar to their 4th set loss against Cal Baptist last weekend, the visitors dialed up the fight and, in the blink of an eye, a rash of CU errors and nine HPU kills made it 15-6, Sharks. For about 15 minutes Concordia had no answer. The Sharks went on the attack and the Eagles struggled to find any points, from anywhere. HPU was almost flawless with 14 kills (only 2 errors) and 4 blocks, while the Eagles hit negative (7 kills and 8 errors), and had only 1 block. Just like that, a 25-12 loss would have Concordia trailing 2-1 for just the 3rd time this season.
Cue the Rocky soundtrack and, as they have done time and again, the Eagles turned the tables and started to grind their way back. Set four would be a series of haymakers by each team, with HPU looking for the knockout blow and Concordia working to wear down their opponent. No lead was safe after an early burst, led by Flynn, had Concordia on the positive side of a 14-6 score. Flynn and Recca, two of the top attackers in the conference, would launch big swing after big swing. Recca made her own statement, leading the Sharks back on a 10-2 run to tie the score at 16. The two would each finish the set with seven terminations but it was Flynn and her teammates doing the damage late. Every time HPU would close the gap, timely kills from Ladensack, Andrews and Tran would give Concordia some room. In the end Flynn and Andrews would score three of the final six points, rounding out a flawless offensive performance from Concordia (16 kills, 0 errors) that propelled them to another 2-point win, 25-23.
By this time the number of fans in the bleachers had doubled as people came in looking for the CUI Men's Basketball game that was due to start. But basketball would have to wait because there was a prize fight happening in the CU Arena. What HPU didn't know, was that this was a tag-team affair and Senior Ladensack was about to tag in and take over. Two Ladensack kills would help the Eagles push out to an early 5-2 lead only to have Recca guide them back and move ahead 7-6. A Ladensack block and an HPU hitting error gave Concordia two of the next three points and the teams would switch sides with CU up 8-7. Recca would collect two more kills to keep HPU close but, with the score at 12-10, Ladensack finished two of the next three points to get Concordia to match point 14-11. Recca would get one more chance but the set was tight to the net, forcing her to land with her foot over the centerline, and the error would send Concordia and its five seniors to win number 25 on the season.
Concordia (25-2, 16-2 PacWest) continues to hold a one game lead over Cal Baptist heading into the final week of the season. The Eagles close out their schedule with a road match at Point Loma next Wednesday at 7 p.m., then finish the season at home against Dominican on Saturday at 3 p.m. The final home match is designated as "School Daze" at Concordia Volleyball and any middle school or high school student can attend the game for free if they RSVP by Thursday, November 17th at noon to
cui.wvolleyball@cui.edu.
